According to Food and Drug Administration data, at least three Americans have been hospitalized after taking suspected counterfeit semaglutide medications, including Novo Nordisk’s diabetic treatment Ozempic.
Ozempic and Wegovy, two additional Novo Nordisk semaglutide medications, have been in low supply for months due to high demand for their usage in weight reduction.
The hospitalizations are among 42 submissions to the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System from throughout the world that reference the usage of counterfeit semaglutide. The agency’s database was last updated at the end of September to cover reports up to that point.
28 of the complaints are rated as “serious,” with results including fatalities.
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Only a few of cases clearly mention Ozempic, including one of the three hospitalizations in the United States. Novo Nordisk submitted all of them to the FDA, citing complaints from consumers or health care practitioners.
The data do not show whether the counterfeits were the cause of the complaints or whether they were unrelated to the report.
An FDA spokeswoman stated that the agency had “no new information to share regarding reports of adverse events” tied to counterfeit semaglutide.
“The FDA will investigate any report of suspected counterfeit drugs to assess public health risks and determine the appropriate regulatory response.” “The FDA remains vigilant in protecting the US drug supply from these threats,” FDA spokeswoman Jeremy Kahn stated in an email.
The revelations come as officials throughout the world say they are dealing with a surge in counterfeit medications.
The FDA’s British equivalent, the Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency, announced late last month that it had intercepted hundreds of “potentially fake Ozempic pens since January 2023.”
The FDA also stated that it has received reports of “a very small number of people who have been hospitalized” as a result of using the counterfeits.
